Four Days

On Tuesday night, Donald Trump gave a speech where he succeeded in reading from a teleprompter and didn’t lie as much as he usually does. The media fawned all over it, declaring that Trump had finally pivoted into acting “presidential”.

Except that early Saturday morning, less than four days later, Trump had another twitter tantrum, accusing Obama of tapping his phones during the election. Of course, he provided absolutely no evidence.

Apparently, Trump is finally having an “outright personality breakdown in public view”. As one twitter user responded, “Keep him away from the nuclear codes today. Please.”

What makes this really scary is that if Trump’s phones were actually tapped, it would mean that a FISA judge decided that there was compelling evidence that Trump was doing something very illegal. You know, like conspiring with the Russians to throw the election. Obama would have had nothing to do with it.

We are supposed to be a nation of laws. Nobody, not even the president, is above the law. The Justice Department has (and must have) independence to protect us from executive power. This independence means not only that Obama does not have the power to wiretap anyone he pleases, but that Trump does not have the power to stop an investigation that was started because of “probable cause”.

Otherwise, we become no better than a banana republic led by a petty dictator.